


Then Maybe I'll Be Your Bird

by diefleder_tey



Category: DC Extended Universe
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/F, Families of Choice, First Kiss, Fluff, Getting Together, Trick or Treat 2020, Trick or Treat: Treat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-14
Updated: 2020-10-14
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:20:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,781
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27012646
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/diefleder_tey/pseuds/diefleder_tey
Summary: Harley showing up unexpectedly is...well, a little expected, honestly.  And to be even more honest, a fighting lesson devolving into a battle of wills?  That's kind of expected, too, with this group.  But what happens after that, Dinah does not see coming.
Relationships: Helena Bertinelli/Dinah Lance
Comments: 4
Kudos: 17
Collections: Trick or Treat Exchange 2020





	Then Maybe I'll Be Your Bird

**Author's Note:**

  * For [salvadore](https://archiveofourown.org/users/salvadore/gifts).



> I was so happy to get to write Birds of Prey fic! I couldn't decide on a single prompt, so I ended up sprinkling several ideas into the final product. One little extra warning I didn't put in the tags, but there's a few uses of the word "cunt" - but not in a derogatory or sexual way (I promise it'll make sense). I hope it's to your liking, and happy fluffy BoP Halloween!
> 
> Super thank you to my beta who always makes my works soooo much better.

"Where's my car, clown?"

Harley stopped short and put up her hands, her cheese-eating grin fully on display as she backed up a few paces and bumped into Cass, pushing her back past the threshold of the door. "Hiya, Canary. Funny story-"

"Not funny, Harley."

"It's a little funny," Harley muttered to the side. "I laughed at least seven times."

"Where is it?" Dinah marched up to the uninvited guest, crossing her arms and staring straight into her eyes, unblinking.

"That's good eye contact."

"I'm serious, Harley," Dinah replied.

"Relax, Canary, it's back at our hangout," Harley said, gingerly patting her on the shoulders.

"I thought you said this was our hangout," Cass interjected from behind her.

Harley whipped around and put her finger in front of her lips, purposely speaking too loud. "This is our _main_ base of operations, remember?" She turned and gave her best contrite expression to Dinah. "It's safe and sound at our other place. Don't worry about it, Canary."

"How did you get out here without a car?" came another voice. Dinah stepped to the side to look at Helena, who had stopped cleaning her crossbow mid-swipe. It hadn't taken them long to get the Booby Trap out at the abandoned Amusement Mile fun park cleaned up and almost looking decent; sure, the electricity was still deader than dead, and they had to use an external power source to light the place up, but the cobwebs were gone and the splintery, rusted out furniture had been dumped. It was clear that most remnants of its past life as a safehouse for the Joker and his crew had been thrown out and replaced with a training dummy and a half-stocked rack for weapons, littered with what looked like a handful of bolts and three different types of crossbow. Helena tracked Harley's eyes going straight to the sad excuse of an armory. "We're working on it, okay? Answer the question."

Harley turned her nose up and hmphed. "I told you it was a funny story, but Canary's not interested."

"I better get it back, Harley."

"Next time! Pinky swear, okay?" she said, holding out her hand with her pinky finger curled.

"I'm not pinky swearing you, Harley," Dinah said, walking back to the training dummy to finish setting it up.

"Fine." She stuck out her tongue. "Kid, pinky swear to me that we'll get Canary's car back to her the next time we stop by."

"But it's a wrec-"

Harley pushed Cass outside of the building and shut the door before she could finish. "There, see, can't break that kind of solemn swear. You got nothin' to worry about!" She wiped off her hands and ignored the sound of Cass thumping her fist against the hard wood of the front entrance. "What are you two doing here anyway?"

"Three," Renee said, coming down the stairs with a box in her hands. "This is our new headquarters. Seemed like a good fit."

"Tactically advantageous in case of another ambush," Helena added.

"It was cheap and available," Dinah translated.

"If you want to use some of our resources for a nicer place instead of allocating it for supplies--" Helena started.

"No," Dinah said, stopping the discussion before it could continue. "I love creepy old clown décor. Why go anywhere else?" She turned her attention to the continued thumping on the door. "And let the kid in, Harley."

"Who said you could use it?" Harley replied, ignoring her. She watched as Dinah rolled her eyes, giving up on the request, and moving to let Cass in herself. "This is my place."

"It's an abandoned dump," Renee interjected.

" _My_ abandoned dump!" Harley continued. "Okay then, I'm your landlord. Rent's $5,000 a month, suckers."

"Good luck throwing us out," Dinah said behind her, closing the door after Cass.

"Fine. The kid and I are taking the upstairs, then."

Helena stared at her. "So, you want to operate your illegal business upstairs, above our crime fighting base?"

"We are a legit business, thank you very much," Harley replied. "Besides, I bet you could use our help."

Renee snorted.

"Hey Cass," Dinah said, ignoring Harley as she started ticking off a very long list on her fingers of potential situations that might call for an all-hands-on-deck approach - like Two-Face stealing all of the $2 bills in town, which everyone seemed to agree wasn't really worth the effort, or a major diamond heist in the city, which seemed reasonable until Helena realized Harley only cared because it meant she couldn't steal the diamonds herself, or the mayor declaring Gotham a dry city, which simply resulted in Renee flipping her the bird. Dinah wasn't getting involved. "You still hanging out with her?"

Cass nodded proudly. "Yeah, she's teaching me stuff."

"Yeah, like what?"

Cass shrugged. "Stuff. Best pizza in town. How to dye your hair with Kool-aid."

Dinah gave her a look.

"We made an exploding pie last week!" Cass replied, initially enthusiastic but quickly losing steam and looking away. "It...didn't explode. But it was good?"

"She at least teach you how to defend yourself?"

"We haven't gotten that far." 

"Right," Dinah said, taking her by the shoulders and directing her to the training dummy. "If I can't talk you out of this, the least we can do is make sure no one can take advantage of you. You ever throw a punch before?"

Cass shook her head.

"Okay, why don't you try, let's see what you can do," Dinah said, motioning to the dummy.

"Uh," Renee said, having sat down on the couch to the side, picking through the box she had carried in. "You want to teach the Artful Dodger here how to punch someone out? We already have a Catwoman in town."

"Ugh," Harley said, flopping down next to her, holding a bowl of ice cream in her hands. "She's the worst. You'd think someone who dresses like a giant cat would have a better sense of humor about being dumped in a quarry. It's a giant kitty litter box! It's like her second home!"

"Where the hell did you get that?" Renee asked.

Harley gave her a smug smile as she put a spoonful in her mouth. "Looks like you haven't cleaned out all of my stuff! I have at least three secret trap doors of snacks. Good luck findin' 'em."

"Wouldn't that mean it's been here for years?" Helena asked, making a face. "And I agree with Montoya. Children should remain innocent; they shouldn't have to be exposed to violence."

Everyone was quiet for a moment before Dinah, Renee, and Harley burst out laughing.

"What?" Helena demanded.

"You've met her, right?" Dinah said, positioning Cass in front of the dummy. "You remember she was here with us that night because she stole a diamond from Sionis?"

"She didn't know she stole it from _him_ ," Helena argued.

"We picked her up so often at the station we started calling it _Cainjacking_ ," Renee said. "I know," she continued, before anyone could react. "I pushed for _Grand Theft Cain_. Got accused of being bad at puns, or something."

"Cassassination," Harley suggested.

"That has nothing to do with pickpocketing."

Harley shrugged. "Last week we made an exploding pie."

"Square up, like this," Dinah told Cass, raising her fists, keeping her arms in tight to her body and prodding the other to copy her stance. "It's too late, Helena. The least we can do is make sure the kid knows how to take care of herself in case Harley drags her into another war against one of Gotham's crime bosses."

"I resent that. If anything, she dragged me."

"Okay," Helena said, putting down her crossbow and walking toward them. "If we're going to do that, then, we should teach her how to do it correctly."

"Excuse me?" Dinah replied.

"Her stance, it's wrong," Helena pointed out. "It's too tight, she needs to loosen up. Here." She moved Cass so she was standing with her feet wider apart and her arms further from her body.

Dinah put her hands on her hips. "That wide open, she'll get punched in the face before she even starts."

"You need to be loose and able to adjust for what your enemy throws at you."

"Okay, well, I have a black belt--" Dinah started.

"I was trained by a family of professional assassins."

Cass sighed and dropped her hands, looking over to the couch. "How would you do it, Harley?"

Harley sucked on the spoon for a minute and then put her finger up in the air. "Roundoff, back handspring, back handspring, full layout, hit them on the head with a giant hammer."

"I don't have a hammer," Cass pointed out.

"That is your first mistake," Harley replied.

"What about you?" she asked Renee, catching her as she was rolling her eyes.

"Take a gun. Use brass knuckles? I don't know, whatever. Cunt punt if you have to."

Cass nodded. "Right...cunt punt."

Dinah pulled off her jacket and tossed it to the couch. "We can see about that," she said. "Your technique against mine. First one to take out the dummy."

"Why waste a good dummy," Helena said. "Want any ground rules?"

"Yeah," Dinah said, loosening up her arms. "No stabbing."

"Fine." Helena pulled the knife out of her belt, then reached down to pull up her pant leg and remove the knife attached to her calf.

"Kid, kid, come here," Harley said, bouncing on the couch and motioning for Cass to sit next to her. "Oh, you know what, I think I put some popcorn in here somewhere too."

Dinah put her fists up. "Let's go."

Helena launched herself, immediately going in for the punch - when she missed, as Dinah took a step back, she twisted her body so she could ram her knee into the other's abdomen, then immediately rolled to the side to get out of the way of Dinah's answering kick. She spun around with her left arm, attempting to slug Dinah as she approached; Dinah easily blocked and went for a left jab. Helena took the blow, but was able to push her weight around Dinah's body to throw her toward the floor. Dinah rolled into the momentum, somersaulting and jumping up in time to meet Helena's next attack with a roundhouse kick. Helena caught her foot and pushed her back, following up with a front stomp kick of her own.

"See, kid?" Harley said. "If one of them just had a giant, cartoon hammer...."

"Nobody needs a hammer," Renee replied, giving her a look.

"Cunt punt," Cass replied.

Harley returned Renee's look. "You are a horrible influence."

Renee put up her hands in a shrug. " _I'm_ the bad influence? Besides, she's right. Huntress left herself wide open for that. Canary should have."

Dinah yelled as she grabbed Helena by her waist and attempted to throw her to the ground. Helena in turn yanked on her hair as hard as she could. Dinah yelled in pain, letting go. "Cheater!"

Helena dropped to the ground to kick Dinah's legs out from under her. "That wasn't a stabbing!"

Dinah jumped over her leg and quickly brought her shin to hit Helena in the head, which was partially blocked. Helena grabbed Dinah's calf and threw herself back, pulling the other off of her feet and down into a pile on the ground.

"Cunt punt her!" Cass yelled.

Renee quickly glanced at Harley. "Okay, yeah, I regret teaching her that."

On the floor, Dinah and Helena were gasping for air as they were fighting for dominance. Dinah attempted to wrap her arm around Helena's neck and roll her over her body to throw her out of the way; Helena broke the hold and wrapped her legs around Dinah's waist, arching her back in an attempt to toss Dinah over onto her butt. Dinah dropped her body weight onto Helena instead, killing the throw. She moved her lips close to Helena's ear, whispering, "You know, one little note here...."

Helena let go of Dinah to cover her ears.

Dinah pushed off and dusted her back side. "I wouldn't dare." She reached out her hand for Helena to take.

Instead, Helena did a kick-up to get back on her feet and tackled Dinah right back down to the ground.

"Hey," Renee said, standing up. "Do you hear that? Hey!" She rushed past the two still wrestling on the ground to the police scanner they kept in the corner, cranking the volume up.

_"-leaving the following note. 'The flare-bomb hurled was also designed to release a special chemical to coat the tires, leaving an invisible trail, a clue to solve if you dare.' Police at this time are unable to locate the-"_

"Ugh," Harley yelled, slumping as hard as she could against the couch. "Not the Riddler, he's so laaaaame."

"No, worse," Renee replied. "Some dipshit that calls himself the Cluemaster. Same schtick, dumber ideas. You two done?"

Dinah and Helena were both laid out on the ground trying to catch their breath. "I guess this has to be a draw for now," Dinah replied. "Why do we care about Cluemaster?"

"The last time he wanted to have fun with GCPD he accidentally started the fire on the East End that burnt down Happy's Burgers," Renee explained. "The original Happy's."

"That monster," Harley said.

"Along with about six office buildings and part of the city park. Last I heard he was hanging out around the docks, but PD won't sniff around mob boss territory and the Maroni family has a monopoly bayside."

"I'm going with you," Harley said, standing up. "Nobody burns down Happy's on my watch!"

"That was two years ago, Harley," Renee pointed out.

"And...my watch was broken then. So there."

Helena spit on the ground. "Mob bosses. I'll bring the whole arsenal."

"We're not going after the Maronis tonight, thank you very much," Renee replied.

"They all need to die!"

"Let's save that for Thursday, okay? I can only deal with so many revenge hits in one night. We good to go?" Renee asked. "Not you, Cass. You're going home. Or that hideout or whatever place you two have set up."

"Actually," Harley admitted. "We're kind of...in between hideouts right now?"

"I thought you said my car was at your 'other' place though," Dinah said, rolling onto her elbows to push up.

"Yeah, it is," Harley replied. "Part of it, anyway."

"Part of it?!"

"It's more like an ex-hideout, too?" Harley answered, picking at her nails. "Anyway...gimme a ride?"

"Fine," Renee sighed. "Cassandra, upstairs. Lock the doors until we're back."

"I've got my bike," Helena said. "I can meet you there."

"I'll go with her," Dinah replied.

"It would make more sense if you went with them," Helena replied.

Dinah crossed her arms. "A, I may strangle her right now," she said, nodding to Harley, "and B, I need a minute."

"Works for me," Renee replied. She started for the back exit with Harley in tow. "When we're done with this, I guess...you can stay the night here? I'll take the kid back to my apartment, she can bum on the couch."

"No, let's all stay here overnight! Please? We can go pick up Bruce, he's boarding at the vet."

"I am not sleeping in this run down, defunct, ex-fun house clown shack," Renee replied. "Especially not with a hyena."

"But then we could coordinate our Halloween costumes for this year!"

Dinah watched them leave, and Cassandra go upstairs, and shook her head, sighing. "Halloween costumes? She's unbelievable."

"I've never worn one before."

Dinah turned to see Helena behind her, a serious look on her face. "Really?"

"My family was always worried trick or treating would give our enemies a chance to kidnap me," she replied.

"Makes sense. Guess there wasn't a lot of opportunity to trick or treat in Sicily either," Dinah replied. She immediately cringed. "Sorry, that was in bad taste."

Helena blinked. "It's factually correct, though."

"Right," Dinah replied. "Well, I just want to get changed first. I think I ripped part of my sleeve when you threw me over your back." She rolled her arm. "You know, we could have a little Halloween party here, then. Bob for apples and that kind of shit. Any idea what you would want to dress up as?"

"A cat," Helena said, deadpan.

"Huh, okay," she replied. "Maybe I'll come as an actual canary then."

"You should."

"Yeah?" Dinah said, turning to face her. "Get a bunch of feathers and sh-" She was quickly stopped by Helena rushing in and pressing her mouth onto Dinah's, her head tilted slightly, but her lips closed. The kiss was chaste, but lingering and sweet. "Oh," Dinah said when Helena finally relented. "Oh...kay. I wasn't expecting that."

"Really?"

"What do you mean 'really'?" 

"I've been into you since we met," Helena replied, incredulous, as if Dinah had missed a three-ton elephant in the room.

"You're kidding me."

"Wasn't it painfully obvious? I kept trying to throw you on the ground."

"Yeah, because we were fighting."

"If we were actually fighting, I would have snapped your neck."

Dinah blinked and then started laughing. "You're nuts, you know that? I love you, but you're nuts."

"There, that," Helena replied. "You just said you loved me again. You've said it a ton. 'I love this chick!'"

"No that was just, that's, it's an expression, Helena."

"So," Helena started. "You...don't?"

Dinah paused for a moment. "Let's take down Cluemaster first, okay? Then we can...talk about this."

Dinah quickly changed her clothes and met Helena outside. She was already on her bike, the engine running and her leg out to the side to hold the machine up. "I only have one helmet, you wear it," Helena said, holding it out to her.

"How about you let me drive, and you can keep it?"

"You, drive?" Helena asked.

"I love motorcycles, just never had the chance to get one," she said, running her hand over the seat.

Helena sighed and put the helmet on, opening the visor. "Maybe some other time. Get on, I promise to go slow...er."

Dinah swung her leg over the seat and scooted up to Helena's back, putting her arms around her waist, loosely at first. "This okay?"

"You'll probably want to hold on tighter if you don't want to fall off," Helena replied, snapping down the visor on the helmet. As soon as she felt Dinah's arms wrap completely around her, she pushed off and headed out toward the Gotham docks.

As they made the first turn, Dinah found herself tightening her grip and pushing her face into Helena's back. Okay, yes, she liked motorcycles, but being on one when she couldn't control anything about it.... Somewhere around the sixth turn, she realized that she wasn't relaxing her hold any on the straightaways; she wasn't pulling her cheek away from Helena's back or leaning back in her seat. It felt...nice. Comforting. Dinah had been looking out for herself for so long, it felt completely foreign to be surrounded so suddenly by people whom she knew she could trust to watch her back. Renee would rather die than see anyone get hurt on her watch. Harley, as bizarre as she could be, seemed to be very territorial about the band of misfits she'd picked up. And Helena....

As they pulled up to the wharf, Dinah's phone started ringing. She tapped Helena's shoulder to get her to pull over. "It's Renee. What's up?"

"You might as well go back to Cass," Renee sighed over the phone. "Quinn's got him hanging off a giant plastic fish at the back of the market. We didn't even get all the way down to the docks, she started talking about how fish makes her puke and...anyway, he was in line to get a fish taco and she tackled him, yelling about Happy's."

"I have a PhD, I know how to make you talk!" Dinah heard from the background.

"Christ," Renee muttered.

"You gonna do something about that?" Dinah asked.

"Yeah, in a bit. Maybe this will keep him from putting on that stupid outfit again when he gets released. See you back at base," Renee said.

"Huh."

"What's going on?" Helena asked.

"Harley's got it, apparently. They're all done."

"Oh. Guess we can go back, then."

Dinah swung her leg around and got off of the motorcycle. "Hang on, we don't need to rush anywhere. It's kind of a nice night." She walked to the curb and hoisted herself on a stone half-wall.

"Oh, yeah, I guess." Helena got off the bike as well, cutting the engine and walking it to the curb to set up the kickstand. She moved next to Dinah and sat down. After a moment she was at a loss for what to do. "Okay, so, yep, nice night."

"I'm sorry about earlier, Helena. You caught me off guard, and I don't like that. It doesn't happen often."

"I know," Helena grumbled. "You kept blocking most of my moves."

"Barely," Dinah replied, slightly exasperated. "I'd say let's go for round 2, but I like my neck in one piece."

"I wouldn't do that," Helena replied. "There's something else I'd rather do if I could pin you again." She looked over at Dinah. "Sorry, I know you're not into that."

"No," Dinah replied, pulling the neck of her top a little lower and rubbing part of the fabric between her fingers. "That isn't it. Like I said, I just don't like being caught off guard. So if you tried kissing me again right now-"

"You wouldn't like it."

"I would know it's coming, because I just brought it up," Dinah replied, leaning forward.

"Or," Helena said, looking at her lips, but not pushing any closer. "If you don't like being caught off guard, you could kiss me."

Dinah smiled. "That works too." She put her hand to Helena's face, pushing a wavy strand behind her ear, before leaning in and kissing her, tasting the texture of her lips and curling her fingers into her hair. "So," she said, barely pulling back. "What exactly is it that you'd do if you pinned me again?"

"Don't know, really. There wasn't a lot of opportunity for that in Sicily, either."

Dinah blinked. "Oh, sorry-"

"That was a joke, Dinah." She paused. "Kind of. Actually, I guess it's true."

"Well, lots of opportunity here, now," Dinah replied. She reached over with her left hand, taking Helena's and intertwining their fingers. Her right hand stayed on the other's cheek, their lips a whisper away. "We'll figure it out as we go."


End file.
